


Septim for your thoughts?

by lesyeuxdelilith



Series: Sapphics put the "S" in Skyrim [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Angst and Feels, Dark Past, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Past Lives, The Author Regrets Everything, This Is STUPID, Weird Fluff, Weird Plot Shit, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21989410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesyeuxdelilith/pseuds/lesyeuxdelilith
Summary: “Hey…” Vex mumbles, sitting down beside Sapphire on the edge of the Northern Maiden’s deck. “Septim for your thoughts?” She asks softly before biting the apple she had found on board. Found, clearly not stolen.ORHow Vex and Sapphire's bond grows more intimate during a trip to Solstheim, carried out solely to find Sapphire's biological father: Raven Rock's blacksmith, Glover Mallory.
Relationships: Sapphire/Vex (Elder Scrolls)
Series: Sapphics put the "S" in Skyrim [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1583038
Comments: 9
Kudos: 17





	Septim for your thoughts?

“Hey…” Vex mumbles, sitting down beside Sapphire on the edge of the Northern Maiden’s deck. “Septim for your thoughts?” She asks softly before biting the apple she had found on board. _Found_ , clearly not stolen. 

Sapphire merely shrugs, her blue eyes staring intently at the crystalline sea. Vex just takes another bite of the slightly bitter apple, waiting patiently for Sapphire to say something, anything at all. Patience’s a virtue she knows all too well, being a lockpicking master and whatnot.

“I just,” Sapphire finally whispered, though somewhat hesitant, “don’t know what to do, what to _say_ , once we get there…” She anxiously plays with her hands before looking at Vex for the first time since they’d gotten to the ship. “I don’t even know how I’ll approach Glover.”

Vex hums, clearly unfaced by her girlfriend’s statement. Truth be told, she had been foreseeing this since the exact same moment she had seen the Dragonborn hand Sapphire a letter, a key to her house in Solstheim, and a bag full of septim.

“There’s no need to worry about that yet, y’know?” Vex casually says, offering Sapphire what’s left of the apple. “We could always go directly to the Severin Manor, do some tourism, go _shopping_ ,” she suggests with a smirk plastered on her face, wiggling her eyebrows twice.

Sapphire snorts and rolls her eyes, hiding her own scornful smile behind their shared piece of fruit. Of course Vex would say something of the like, she wasn’t one of the Thieves Guild’s Masters for no reason after all. Still… Vex’ insinuation is enough to humour her, and both of them are aware that.

“I guess ‘m nervous,” Sapphire admits, a reddish hue tinting her freckled cheeks, “I thought I’d lost my parents back when those darn bandits attacked the farm I used to live in.” 

At that, Vex tenses up unwillingly, remembering what had happened to Sapphire after those scumbags had finished her parents off. “Are you gonna you tell him what… What happened after that?” Vex asks carefully, trying to dance around the sensitive subject.

Fortunately, Sapphire just shrugs again. “I don’t think so. Not ‘till I fully trust him... _Or_ get so drunk that I can’t control what I say.” The brunette says slyly, although there’s sorrow sparkling within her eyes. Vex decides to stay silent since she does know better than to force her girlfriend to talk about emotional stuff.

They both fall into a comfortable silence as the ship finally sets sail, leaving Windhelm’s snowy harbour behind in a matter of minutes. Unbeknownst to them, both pray to the Nine that they won’t come across a dragon since, according to the Dragonborn, Raven Rock was a place that dragons seemed to enjoy attacking.

After a while, Sapphire throws the now finished apple at a group of fishes that were swimming closely to the ship, chuckling when they start competing against each other for the leftovers. Vex, on the other hand, just toys absentmindedly with the golden ring that adorned her left index finger, thing that Sapphire notices right on the spot.

“What about you?” Sapphire suddenly asks, placing her head on Vex’s shoulder. “Septim for your thoughts?”

“Just wonderin’ if you’ll ask daddy dearest to tell Delvin to cut his stalking out before I cut off his brother’s most valuable asset… Especially now that you’re dating me.” The blonde responds coyly, snorting when Sapphire giggles.

“Sure,” Sapphire replies just as sardonically, “but we both know that _that_ ’s not what’s going on inside that pretty head of yours.”

One can’t simply hide anything from a thief, after all. Give them the chance to have a sneak peak of your heart and mind and they’ll end up lockpicking their way through and make themselves at home.

“All this ‘reuniting with your biological father’ is bringing me back some memories about my family, ‘s all.” Vex ends up saying, refusing to meet Sapphire’s eyes.

The other thief turns serious in the blink of an eye. It was no wonder that she had sobered up so quickly, since she had _never_ heard anything about Vex’s backstory. Sure, that was part of her partner’s charm, the undying mystery, but Sapphire just wasn’t gonna miss the opportunity to get to know her girlfriend a little bit better.

“If I recall correctly, they live in Cyrodiil, right?” Sapphire questions, putting the feelers out. It was a bold conclusion and she knew it, but Vex was an Imperial and those were from Cyrodiil. When Vex solemnly nods, she lets curiosity get the best of her. “What about ‘em?”

The platinum blonde snorts, though this time it’s out of annoyance. “Oh, nothin’ really, just thinkin’ ‘bout the good ol’ times where I didn’t have a single coin despite my damned parents’ wealth.”

Sapphire grows silent, drawing circles on Vex’s trembling hand in what she hoped to be a soothing manner; unsure of what else she could do to calm her girlfriend down.

“Both of them were greedy assholes who married each other for further wealth, status and convenience. The sole reason they had me was to play pretend... ” Vex eventually mumbled, staring at the ring once more.

“They would save each and every coin to increase their wealth, which often ended up in me starvin’ to death or not havin’ enough resources to live on the daily.” Sapphire’s eyes soften considerably as she bites her lower lip worriedly. “I started stealing from them so that I could survive. Punishment ensued whenever my parents’ noticed what I was doing, so I became sneaky and sly, and learned how to lie no matter the situation I was in.”

Vex runs her left hand throughout her hair, trying to sigh the pressure that had accumulated within her chest away. “Twelve years ago I decided that I’d had enough. I waited ‘till midnight, opened every chest and vault of the house, stole every single thing that was stored within and ran away, not looking back even once.”

“I dunno how or why, but I ended up abandoning Cyrodiil and ended up Skyrim. Brynjolf found me a couple of days after my arrival, he had been lookin’ for me since the news of what I’d done had spread like wildfire, took me in without thinking twice... An’ here I am.”

After pondering for a while, Vex shows Sapphire the golden ring she had been toying with before. “This was the _only_ gift I’ve ever gotten from them… They gave it to me while we were in public, during an important party they were hosting, just to brag about their wealth and our “perfect family relationship”... Tsk, perfect my ass.”

Sapphire nods to herself, the edges of her lips curling upwards into a smug smile. “So, you’re thinking about visitin’ them and takin’ everything from ‘em again?” Was there _any_ better way of comforting a fellow thief than with the suggestion of a promising theft?

Vex chuckles and licks her lips, clearly enjoying the idea. “Perhaps,” she mutters as she meets Sapphire’s eyes, “think of it as another escapade.” It sounds far more intimate than Vex had originally intended, but none of them give it much thought. They were a couple after all, even if they had promised each other to take things nice and slow.

“You were right…” Vex mumbles after a while, prompting Sapphire to hum and shoot her a questioning look. “Talking about these things sure does feel nice… I feel as if a weight had been lifted off of me.”

Sapphire flashes a ‘told you so’ smirk before Vex even has the chance to keep on talking. “Brat,” she musters, rolling her eyes, “anyways, sorry ‘bout that, I know this ain’t about m—.”

“There’s no need to apologize,” Sapphire interrupts, “it was nice to have you open up a bit for once.” The sincerity of her words manage to endear Vex, who unwillingly blushes a rich shade of red. Her blush goes unnoticed by Sapphire, since her attention shifts from her girlfriend to Raven Rock as the ship finally halts nearby its port.

They had been so invested in their conversation that they hadn’t even noticed that they’d arrived to the island known as Solstheim, nor the weather change, which had shifted from freezing cold to hellish warm. Time sure was a debatable concept.

Vex chuckles with faux arrogance, smirks and says, “don’t get used to it, gemstone,” before getting up and off the ship. She stretches, her bones cracking pleasantly in the process, and looks back at her girlfriend. 

“C’mon, Sapph, we’ve got some business to take care of.”


End file.
